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May 8, 2012

Diverse journalism collaborations need more coordination, editor says

While multiple collaborative news efforts such as American Public Media's Public Insight Network (PIN) are beginning to find success, more coordination among them is needed to increase their impact, notes Andrew Haeg, product manager for PIN, in a column on MediaShift. "A cacophony of instruments is tuning and testing separately," he writes, "waiting for a conductor to tap the podium, and begin."

"The technology, networks and willingness to collaborate are in place to make this kind of coordinated journalistic project real," he notes. "And if we're really focused on public service, the only way to understand the dangers of an increasingly complex and interconnected world, is to become more complex and interconnected ourselves."

"So what's stopping us? My hypothesis is that it's a lack of coordination, which is another way of saying, we need leaders," Haeg writes. "After all, collaboration doesn't just happen organically. There has to be both a shared self-interest and a force that brings the pieces into alignment. That force could be a consortium of news organizations (like the group behind the Public Media Platform), or a single newsroom with enough clout and vision to get the orchestra's full attention."